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April 2016 HRMonthly 29
28
hrmonline.com.au
GRADUATES IN AUSTRALIA ARE NOW ESTIMATED TO
leave university needing to repay up to $100,000 in tuition fees.
With higher education now carrying such a hefty price tag, you’d
be forgiven for expecting students to emerge from the cap and
gown work-ready.
International rankings suggest Australian universities compare
well with their counterparts elsewhere in the developed world,
but the March 2015 launch of the National Work Integrated
Learning Strategy, designed to help graduates be truly ready
for the workplace by placing more emphasis on practical
opportunities throughout a degree course, suggests there’s still
a long way to go.
Nationwide in 2013, just over 177,000 people studied
management at university.
Dr Alan Nankervis, chair of AHRI’s National Accreditation
Committee says that while AHRI accreditation of HRM courses
provides some assurance that students graduate with useful skills,
many courses still fall short in arming students with basic skills
needed in the workplace.
“Employers constantly complain about the lack of
competencies in written communication, interpersonal
communication or the ability to persuade employers or market
their services,” says Nankervis.
Nicole Tighe is one such employer. As a people and culture
manager at a state government department, she says the
graduates she has worked with have arrived with a sound
theoretical understanding of HR management, but haven’t had
any exposure to practical experience.
That may be as expected, but, says Tighe, there are “defi nitely
some elements of HR you can’t learn in a book and the
unpredictability of working with other people necessitates
real-world experience.”
Some people, she believes, try to apply a theoretical ‘one-
size-fits-all’ approach to HR management, which just cannot
work. “To be successful in your role, you need to have a strong
understanding of the individual business,” says Tighe. Once you
have that knowledge, she says, it’s not necessarily a big step to
show that you can contribute at a strategic level.
THE NEED FOR NUMBERS
Big data is, increasingly, central to developing an effective HR
management strategy says Cathy Sheehan, an associate professor
at Monash University’s Department of Management. As such she
advises students to choose an elective in evidence-based research
that will give them the tools and credibility in their role. “In the
interviews I’ve done with top management executives, they say
that if HR people can provide evidence-based information, it
gives them a lot more grip in their organisation,” says Sheehan.
Using mathematical capability and analysis to combine H R
with sales and financial data will soon be a fundamental part
of every HR professional’s work, says Susan Ferrier, KPMG’s
national managing partner, people, performance and culture.
“I say to my team that everybody needs to be able to use a
spreadsheet. You need to be able to analyse and present data in
a way that tells a stor y about what is happening.” Ferrier says
people with a background in mathematics will also have an edge.
In general, she says, HR degrees produce good graduates, but »
READY TO ROLL?
Are university degrees fully preparing graduates for the professional HR world,
or are they merely the first step on a path of continuous learning?
BY GARY NEWMAN AND MARTIN WANLESS
“YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO ANALYSE
AND PRESENT DATA IN A WAY THAT
TELLS A STORY ABOUT WHAT IS
HAPPENING.”
SUSAN FERRIER, NATIONAL MANAGING PARTNER, KPMG